JOSEPH KONY, AMERICA'S PRETEXT TO INVADE AFRICA: US Marines Dispatched to Five African Countries

Global Research, March 16, 2012

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29800

The hidden agenda in Uganda, Central Africa and the Horn of Africa is the conquest of oil and strategic mineral resources. Going after Joseph Kony and protecting Ugandan children is a cynical smokescreen, a pretext for a "humanitarian intervention" in a region where US sponsored  "civil wars" (Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia) have in the course of the last 20 years resulted in more than eight million deaths: 

"Through AFRICOM, the United States is seeking a foothold in the incredibly resource rich central African block in a further maneuver to aggregate regional hegemony over China. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is one of the world’s largest regions without an effectively functioning government. It contains vast deposits of diamonds, cobalt, copper, uranium, magnesium, and tin while producing over $1 billion in gold each year. It is entirely feasible that the US can considerably increase its presence in the DRC under the pretext of capturing Joseph Kony." (Nile Bowie,  Merchandising and Branding Support for US Military Intervention in Central Africa, Global research, March 14, 2012) 

In a recent decision, the Pentagon confirms the sending in of Marine Special Forces to train Ugandan troops in the fight not only against Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) but also against Al Shabab in Somalia. Joseph Kony is being used as a pretext for outright military intervention in five African countries.

"So far, the task force has deployed small teams to five African nations, including some threatened by the terror group al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, according to a Marine news release" (Stars and Stripes, March 15, 2012 ).

Officially, the underlying framework is "peacekeeping" to be achieved through US sponsored "counterterrorism operations". The stated objective is to transform Ugandan soldiers into "counterterrorism engineers", namely Special Forces under US supervision,  "who will then deploy to Somalia in support of infantry battalions."(Ibid) 

The sending in of US Marines to Africa is  upheld as "part of a new Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force-12 based out of Sigonella, Sicily" which will dispatch small teams of Marine forces throughout the African continent. The initiative was launched in 2011 "as part of an effort to prepare African militaries to conduct counterterrorism operations" under US guidance.

What this initiative also implies is the direct involvement of Ugandan troops and special forces in the civil war in Somalia:

Related US officials see progress in squeezing Lord’s Resistance Army in central Africa US weighs response as extremist group expands reach across Nigeria

“The genesis of this mission was operations in Mogadishu, Somalia, where African Union peacekeepers experienced IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and other complex obstacles, which exposed them to ambushes by al Shabaab,” said Maj.Charles Baker, a spokesman for the Marine mission, in a news release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Kampala.

“The soldiers on training will use the acquired knowledge in war-torn Somalia and in the hunt down of fugitive LRA commander Joseph Kony, wherever he is,” said Ugandan People’s Defense Force Lt. Col. Richard C. Wakayinja, in a separate Marine news release. (Stars and Stripes, March 15, 2012)

Michel Chossudovsky contributed to this Report